1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of computer integrated telephony.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer integrated telephony to date involves the use of a personal computer interface to establish and maintain a telephone call. Typically, where a personal computer has been configured with a modem communicatively coupled via twisted pair to a telephone outlet, a graphical user interface can be provided within the personal computer through which a user can initiate or receive a telephone call. Notably, an integrated microphone and speakers can provide the transducive means by which the user can maintain a telephone call through the personal computer, just as if the user had established the telephone call through an ordinary corded telephone handset.
Nevertheless, the era of the corded telephone has come to an end and the world of the cordless handset has overtaken the marketplace. While early cordless phones operated within the forty-five (45) megahertz (MHz) frequency spectrum based upon which the quality of reception varied from the barely tolerable to inoperable, newer phones of only a decade ago operated at nine-hundred (900) MHz. Most recently, cordless phones have operated in the industrial scientific medical (ISM) frequency spectrum of 2.4 gigahertz (GHz). Within the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum, the quality of a telephone call has reached new heights and the quality has rivaled that of the corded telephone.
While the success of the 2.4 GHz cordless handset quickly consumed the market, the same cannot be said of computer integrated telephony. In this regard, computer modems remain bound to the twisted pair as the acceptable market price point for a computer modem does not permit the integration within the modem of a wireless transceiver required to communicate with a 2.4 GHz base station. Consequently, the end user of a computer remains bound to the cordless handset to initiate and maintain a telephone call and computer integration heretofore has not been possible.
Also within the ISM frequency band, wireless data communications have flourished. Presently, different wireless transmission techniques, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, have been used as the medium of data communications. In the case of Bluetooth, highly effective personal area networks have been established, whereas in the case of Wi-Fi, wider area wireless networks have been established. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical configuration for a wireless network.
Generally, to establish a wireless data network, wireless network transceivers 150 coupled to personal computers 140 communicate through a wireless access point 160 as is known in the art. Importantly, the wireless transceivers 150 communicate with the access point 160 over the same frequency as does the cordless handset 110 with the base station 120. Yet the wireless data network of modern computing remains completely decoupled from cordless telephony. In this regard, to establish and maintain a telephone call through a cordless base station 120 coupled to a telephone outlet 130, a separate cordless handset 110 will be required.